Inmate's drug tip led to arrest

September 5, 2009|By Anthony Colarossi, Sentinel Staff Writer

A prisoner at Lake Correctional Institution near Clermont tipped off investigators about a prison employee bringing narcotics into the facility, according to newly released details stemming from Thursday's arrest of a prison worker.

A prisoner was caught with a cell phone Tuesday, according to an arrest affidavit released Friday, and that prisoner later told officials he had information about a worker bringing narcotics into the facility.

The tip led to an investigation by the Inspector General's Office, the Postal Inspection Service and the Lake County Sheriff's Office Special Investigations Unit. The result: Eustis resident Julia Bedenbaugh, 39, was arrested on a charge of possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute.

Bedenbaugh, who worked as a mental-health counselor at the prison, has been fired, state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said.

The prisoner told Inspector General's Office officials of an employee who used a personal mailbox in Astatula. On the cell phone, they found Bedenbaugh's name and her post-office-box address, according to the arrest report.

Investigators then contacted postal inspectors about a possible illegal package. A postal inspector collected two envelopes from Bedenbaugh's postal box. Dogs with the Lake County Sheriff's Office later sniffed the packages, and officers "received a positive alert to the odor of narcotics," according to the report.

On Thursday, Special Investigations Unit detectives conducted surveillance on the post office in Astatula. Bedenbaugh arrived shortly before 3 p.m. and picked up the two packages. Detectives then took her into custody, the report said.

Detectives executed a search warrant of the envelopes and found a cell phone and charger in one and two brown plastic cigar tubes wrapped in black electrical tape in the other. Inside the cigar tubes they found "a large amount of crack cocaine," the affidavit states.

Bedenbaugh posted $20,000 bail and was released from the Lake County Jail.

Plessinger said an investigation continues.

The state institution is about six miles north of Clermont on U.S. Highway 27. The facility has a staff of 348 and a maximum capacity for 1,093 inmates, according to the state Department of Corrections Web site.